- Letters: O/ACINTZ
- Words: 55
- Points: 310
- Pangrams: 1
|
The table provides clues for the roots of words in today's NY Times Spelling Bee. You're responsible for prefixes, suffixes,
tense changes, plurals, doubling consonants before suffixes, and alternate spellings of roots. An exception:
since Sam won't allow S, when the root contains an S, the clue may be for a plural or suffixed form. "Mice" for example.
If a clue isn't self-explanatory, try googling it.
The TL;DR about the site comes after the table.
Past clues are available here |
Today's puzzle
| |
|
Table content
|
| answers covered | answer's first two letters | answer's length | clue for root (answer may need prefix, suffix, tense change, alt spelling, ...) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | AC | 6 | What a director yells to start filming, noun |
| 1 | AN | 6 | Ceremonially smear someone with oil, or designate as a successor |
| 1 | AN | 4 | Soon, poetically |
| 1 | AN | 5 | Atom or molecule with a net electric charge |
| 1 | AN | 10 | Write something, for example music, in a specialized system; or write comments in the margins of a book |
| 1 | CA | 5 | Bean source of Hershey Bars |
| 1 | CA | 6 | Wheeled artillery |
| 1 | CA | 6 | “I am unable to do so,” formally |
| 2 | CA | 5,7 | Nikon rival, or accepted (Church) lore, noun, adverb form is a pangram |
| 1 | CA | 12 | Make someone a saint |
| 1 | CA | 6 | Swiss “state,” or upper inner corner of a flag (blue field with white stars here) |
| 2 | CA | 9,9 | Psychological term for abnormality of movement, noun (informally, immobile & unresponsive) |
| 1 | CA | 6 | Chem. term for a positively charged particle (“days off work” synonym without the VA– prefix), noun |
| 1 | CI | 4 | “Hi” or “Bye” in Italian (“… bella”) |
| 1 | CI | 8 | Quote as evidence |
| 1 | CO | 4 | Outdoor jacket (trench-…) |
| 1 | CO | 5 | Central American raccoon |
| 1 | CO | 4 | 1st part of popular soda brand name |
| 1 | CO | 5 | Spherical or nearly spherical bacterium |
| 1 | CO | 5 | Hot winter drink with marshmallows, or the powder it’s made from |
| 1 | CO | 6 | Nest for butterfly larva, noun; or wrap up like one, verb |
| 1 | CO | 4 | Metal $, noun; or come up with a new phrase, verb |
| 2 | CO | 7,10 | Create a mixed drink, potion, or wild story |
| 1 | CO | 5 | Ice cream holder shape |
| 1 | CO | 11 | (of a word or fact) imply, verb |
| 1 | CO | 7 | Get in touch with, verb; or list of people’s numbers on your phone (if plural), noun |
| 1 | CO | 7 | Have or hold within (allergy warning on food label: may…nuts), or stifle (I’m so excited that I can hardly…myself), verb |
| 1 | CO | 4 | Foolish old ♂, or water bird |
| 1 | CO | 6 | Soft fabric or its plant source |
| 2 | IC | 4,6 | Symbol (you tap on phone screen, e.g.), adverb form is a pangram |
| 1 | IN | 8 | What a director yells to start filming, noun |
| 1 | IN | 11 | Recite a spell or a prayer; chant or intone, verb, usually occurs in its -ation noun form |
| 1 | IN | 10 | Cause to begin, or admit into a secret society; verb; or novice, noun |
| 1 | IN | 4 | Enter (go … the room), preposition |
| 1 | IN | 10 | Character of sound, a sound (dial or ring-); noun; give greater strength or firmness to a body or a muscle; verb |
| 2 | IO | 5,10 | Atom or molecule with a net electric charge |
| 1 | IO | 4 | 9th Greek letter, I; or extremely small amount |
| 1 | NA | 6 | Country, or temperance activist Carrie |
| 1 | NO | 4 | 12:00, midday, 🕛 |
| 1 | NO | 8 | Write something, for example music, in a specialized system; or write comments in the margins of a book |
| 1 | NO | 6 | Vague idea, or small sewing accessory |
| 1 | OC | 6 | Arc of a circle that’s 1/8 of circumference, or obsolete navigation device |
| 1 | ON | 5 | Veg that makes you cry when cut (for some, this is the "dreaded root veg") |
| 1 | ON | 4 | Preposition when mounting an animal or boarding a large vehicle |
| 1 | TA | 4 | Mexican filled tortilla, or “… Bell” restaurant |
| 1 | TA | 6 | Skin “ink” |
| 1 | TO | 7 | Virtuoso musical piece (Bach’s “… & Fugue in D Minor”) |
| 1 | TO | 5 | Carbonated water often mixed with gin |
| 1 | TO | 4 | Animated film or character, slang abbr. (car…) |
| 1 | TO | 4 | Short horn sound; noun/verb |
This site provides clues for a day's New York Times Spelling Bee puzzle. It follows in Kevin Davis' footsteps. The original set of 4,500 clues came from him, and they still make up about three quarters of the current clue set.
The "Bee Roots" approach is to provide explicit clues for root words, not every word. As logophiles, we are pretty good at putting on prefixes and suffixes, changing tense, and forming plurals (including Latin plurals!). The clues cover root words, arranged alphabetically by root word, with a count of words in the puzzle that come from each root. For example, if a puzzle includes ROAM and ROAMING, there will be a clue for ROAM and a count of 2. The root may not appear in the puzzle at all; for example, the 2021-07-23 Bee included ICED, DEICE, and DEICED. For such a puzzle, the clue would be for ICE with a word count of 3.
The Bee Roots approach involves judgement sometimes. For example, if a puzzle includes LOVE, LOVED, and LOVELY, how many roots are needed to cover them? LOVE and LOVED share the root LOVE, certainly, but LOVELY is tricky. LOVE is part of its etymology, but by now, the word means "exquisitely beautiful," which is a lot farther from the meaning of LOVE than swithcing to past tense. I'm inclined to treat LOVE and LOVELY as separate roots. You may not agree, which is fine. Another thing we logophiles share is a LOVE of arguing about words on Twitter.
A few words can have one meaning as a suffixed form and another as a stand-alone word. EVENING, for example. In those cases I will use the meaning that I think is more common.
One last complication, until another one pops up: a few roots have multiple spellings, for example LOLLYGAG and LALLYGAG. Depending on the day's letters, and maybe even the editor's whims, one or both could be in the puzzle's answer list. With such roots, you could see a word count of 2, even if there are no applicable prefixes or suffixes.
I will do my best to keep this site up to date and helpful (I hope). Check it out, and tweet feedback to @donswartwout Tweet to @donswartwout